Bag-Kun
by 1tE5o6
Summary: Forced into a ten-year reunion and they can't remember a second of it. A whole night missing and they're pretty sure they killed somebody very important to them. Somebody they were sure they'd killed sixteen years ago. Murder, secrets, and an anonymous blackmailer hellbent on making them all suffer. Bodies are piling high. (Nagisa-centric.)
1. Prologue

**_Nagisa._**

I don't think that I could ever properly describe the looks on our faces as we stood over that makeshift hole. I knew that I could hear Monaka crying. I knew that I felt sick with guilt and horror, like there was a pit in my stomach, and much like the pit in front of us, something within it was dead. Beyond revival.

Masaru stabbed the shovel into the damp pile of earth beside him and looked around at us breathlessly, one-by-one. When his gaze finally settled upon me, he looked expectant, searching me for something to say or do. It must have taken me at least a full minute to register anything. I leaned over the pile of dirt and took some of it in a closed palm, excavating it without any fear of the worms that could have been writhing amongst it for once. I felt it stick to my skin, crawl in between my fingers, and drive itself under my nails. Kotoko seemed to understand why I did this, and picked up a handful in suit. Monaka next, and then Jataro. Masaru stared at us, as if trying to figure out our actions.

"Just do it." I said to him, resulting in a short transition from confusion to anger, and then to submission. He crouched and grabbed the dirt. Starting with me, we each threw dirt into the hole. Masaru began filling it up using the shovel. As it filled, we became emptier and emptier, until the soil was finally level, and we knew that the day was over.

None of us really brought it up again after that, and I don't think we really wanted to. From that point on, we weren't ever really the same. Some kind of weight had fallen upon us at the realisation of what we'd actually done. At the time we'd only been twelve, but even as the years went on, and we fell under the proclaimed leadership of Monaka, the memory lingered. Death became normal, the world was falling to pieces, and we were helping it happen. We thought we were just doing what was best. We thought that we could make up for what we'd done to one person, by sacrificing thousands of others. Monaka had changed the most… her heart was stone-cold, and her obsession with atoning for that day with despair lead her to cast us, who had been her friends away and damage us. It was only thanks to her doing so that we managed to escape punishment by law when the world was mid-recovery. Our stories as victims gave us a free pass, and soon, even the adults who'd detested our movement learned to forgive us. We hadn't personally reunited with Monaka, but her trial day came and she was forced into a rehabilitation facility, in order to reverse the damage that was done to her, and thus, to the society she'd torn apart. It seemed so simple in theory, but the people loathed her, shunned her. They were scared to trust her, and so were we.

We went through high school pretending everything was normal, and just like that, we grew up. Kotoko was the first to leave, mid-way through high school. She was determined to work on her acting career more than anything, and moved across the country for a role. That was the first time I was forced to think about what would happen to us as a group once we were finished with school.

The anxiety grew worse when Masaru left. He'd gotten some sort of sports scholarship on the other side of Japan, and it left Jataro and I alone to finish school. The house seemed so empty, and there was silence that grew between us as we lost common interests. We had nothing to talk about. I should have expected him to be the next to leave, but I'd been trying so hard not to think about it. I never realised how scared I was to be alone until I was pleading with him to stay. I didn't care about the opportunities he had, I just wanted to be selfish for once. I wanted to cling on to what I had.

He left after staying for me on at least three different occasions. I kept telling him to wait until I at least got into a university. But he couldn't keep saying yes to me, and he left in the middle of the night. I knew why he did it. I don't think he ever knew how to say no to me. Jataro had a deeply imbedded sense of inferiority. He hated himself, and he hated people who didn't hate him, and himself for hating them. Except for me. We were best friends.

But even he had to grow up. Even he had to survive. He'd spent years in court-appointed therapy building up to a future, and staying with a desperate me was just an anchor, keeping him down.

When he left I was angry, but I was a far distance from a sane mind. All of the applications I'd sent out, with grades licking the pinnacle of literal perfection were denied due to my record. Even if the charges were dropped, the mark we'd made on history was still there. Unlike the others, where a little rebellion was the breeding ground of creative talent and a crowd-grabber, mass murder wasn't easily looked on by professional establishments. I was branded as a troublemaker, which I detested. But it was inevitable, no matter how much I didn't want it to be so, my future was stolen by my past, and I was stuck in that big, empty house.

Alone.


	2. One

**10 Years Later.**

 **Tuesday.**

I was happy. I was happy up until the day that the letter arrived. No, realistically it was a slow decline, but the letter was indisputably the catalyst. On the day that I'd gotten it, I'd been working for an exceptionally cranky Haiji Towa who, despite loathing my very existence, seemed to find advantage in me being his assistant. In his words, 'those who can't even make it into one university are lucky to even get a job.' Haiji still recognised my intellect and business intuition and took advantage of that. Coaxing me into doing literally all of his work as head of the Towa Group. That, and getting his coffees and cigarettes.

Again, he loathes me. Obligatory loathing, of course, since I was friends with Monaka for a long time as a child. Their family hadn't been a particularly friendly one, despite the wealth and status. Both Haiji and his father were horrible people, who despite not having much room to talk, expressed disgust in the face of Monaka's existence. She was the love child of their father's affair, a mistake, and the reason for Haiji's mother walking out on them. She was expected to act as furniture, else the consequences would be dire, and often physical.

If not for Monaka's unyielding genius, she probably would have been treated even worse somehow. Her extensive IQ and aptitude for robotics left her as the perfect head for the Towa Robotics Branch, even when she was as young as eleven.

Monaka and I had shared a particularly advanced understanding of the world, the both of us collided in intellectual capability through opposite sides of the spectrum. I had a learned aptitude, which was forced into me from a young age by my demonic parents. Monaka was tenacious, with a gifted mind and a social understanding beyond comprehension. We bonded intellectually in ways that other children could not. We were fluent in an above-adult language and for me, it only seemed to make her stand out that much more.

I hadn't seen her in a long time, and there was a definite reason for that. Despite us ageing and the time that had passed, I don't think any of us really wanted to keep in touch with her after what had happened. Genius minds came with twisted sides, and hers were seemingly endless.

I did forgive her, though, a long time ago in my own mind. Part of me always knew that she was victim enough in this as we were. The others… I doubt ever even looked at forgiveness as an option.

Much like them, Monaka had found her peace somewhere else, although I wasn't particularly certain of the details. As far as I knew, nobody even attempted to ask Haiji. He hated talking about her, and frequently denied relations or even her existence. A part of me was glad that she was far away from him… safe. Another part of me had decided that if I could live my life wanting Monaka to be happy, then I could live my life wanting happiness for myself. And that's what I was. I was happy.

Until the letter arrived.

It was waiting for me in the hands of my roommate and high-school study-group partner, Kimiko. She held it out to me while sorting through her own mail, and without a clue of what I was setting loose upon myself, I opened it. At first I turned it over again, taking in the curved, unusual presentation of my name. There were no details on the front of the letter other than my address, either. Placing the envelope aside, I carefully unfolded the paper inside. In amongst the folds, a photograph had been tucked away. It was the first thing I saw and it nearly stopped my heart when I looked it over. It was like time stopped, and the only thing I could hear was the pounding of my own heart against my head. I felt sick, like I was going to throw up. I quickly read over the letter.

' ** _The Future Foundation gave you all a second chance._**

 ** _…But some other people might not be so forgiving if they find out about THIS.'_**

I looked the photo over again and then turned it over. There was something written on the back. An address, a date and time, and…

' ** _Can't wait to see you there (or else)! Black-tie. Bring drinks. ;)'_**

 ** _\- Bagkun_**

The picture… it was blackmail. And it left out any other option but compliance. Somebody had been sitting on this picture for sixteen years. Somebody was there on that night, and they had evidence of the worst crime we'd ever committed. The one we'd never confessed to, and the one that would get us killed if any of the wrong people found out.

My breathing slowed to a wheeze. I could feel myself paling. I was dizzy and sick to my stomach. I made a grab for the arm of the lounger and lowered myself onto it. Kimiko had only just returned to the room, and looked at me with concern over the cup of tea she'd just made. It only took that one look at me for her to place her mug on the nearest surface and head back into the kitchen for a glass of water. She brought it over soundlessly and seated herself to my right. I glanced at her, brows furrowing. I had no idea what I was supposed to say to her.

Thankfully, Kimiko wasn't the type to ask too many questions. She simply sat there, staring blankly at me from her spot. Kimiko had an unnerving stare, too. As long as I'd known her, she'd often get lost in the action and forget to blink. Being particularly wide-eyed and mostly just intense, both presence and personality-wise, most people considered her to be creepy. I'd never really thought that, myself. In fact, I'd never really had much of a problem with her at all. After all, it had never directly been a hindrance to me, personally.

There was a period of time during high school in which she had an infatuation with Masaru. In the words of Kotoko, she had been a 'stalker' and a 'weirdo pervert'. Both Masaru and I had agreed that she was simply enthusiastic, although it was easy for him to say, since she did literally everything for him, no matter what. Despite sleeping in Masaru's closet and trailing him closer than his own shadow, she DID always make a point to do his chores and generally help me around the house.

Others mostly saw THAT side of her, but I knew her before all of that. She was a normal girl. Smart, and a good friend. One of the only ones that stuck with me after high school. She studied at Towa City's University, which had been built during the reparation period and was infamously pretentious. As a mathematics prodigy, it was easy for her to get in.

She ended up simply teaching statistics at the university since she was so good with her work. Neither of us ever left Towa, and neither of us seemed to ever want to do things differently, so we continued living together platonically, going about our lives. We were happy. I was happy.

Until the letter arrived.

The letter that sat in my hands and burned them like acid. I was fumbling as I tried to find my breath. I thought that this was out of my life. I didn't want to go back to the nightmares and panic attacks… but fate was indisputably sucky, and I was left with a huge pile of 'fuck you' in my mailbox.

I flipped the image again, checking the details. It was a local address, which was somewhat convenient. It definitely made things feel safer knowing that I was close to home. I finally turned to Kimiko and accepted the glass of water she was still holding.

"What is it, Nagisa?" She asked, tucking some of her long, dyed strawberry-blonde hair behind her ear. I quickly finished my mouthful of water and placed the cup on the side table.

"…Just an invitation."


	3. Two

_**Wednesday.**_

I hadn't even gotten into work yet when I received a call. Though, to be honest, I was stuck in the middle of a traffic jam so it wasn't like I didn't have time. While others preyed on the extensive line of cars with creative vocabularies, I mostly kept the obscenities to myself.  
In the space of my car. Under my breath. It was very therapeutic, alongside envisioning the traffic being a direct result of Haiji Towa spontaneously bursting into flames on his motorcycle.

"Hello?" I asked, only **_mostly_** sighing into the word. Now that I'm thinking about it, years and years of mothering teenagers and dealing with horrific backstory bullshit has made me an awfully rude person to talk to.  
"Nagisa?" Came a familiar voice, but one that I couldn't quite pin down. It sounded like a whisper, the kind that a person might use if they were doing something questionable. Like ordering magazines. Not… any kind particularly. Just magazines. I was half-tempted to respond with 'no' and see if he'd hang up on me.  
"Who is this?" I asked slowly, rolling forward in the traffic, just a bit. I could see what was slowing the traffic now. There was some idiot with a plastic bag over his head there, speaking to the police. I couldn't really tell the nature of the incident, but maybe he'd been pulled up on drug charges or something. I wouldn't doubt it, seeing what he was wearing.  
"Uh… Daimon. Masaru Daimon."

I hung up on him immediately. Not today, sportbrain. As I drove further, again, into traffic, I could see the flashy vests of another line of police officers. It looked as though they were doing breathalyser tests and pulling over every few cars. An officer waved my car over to the side, and with a tense exhale, I followed along. My phone was ringing again, by the time I'd pulled up, and I stared at the officer blankly as he glanced at it in the passenger seat. It stopped ringing.  
"I'm going to need you to blow into this."  
"Sure." I was so screwed. I took a deep breath in—and the phone started ringing again. I tried to ignore it. The officer, instead of telling me to turn it off, instead stared it down, and then me.

"Go ahead, answer it."  
I squinted.  
"No." …And then quickly changed my mind. This guy had a breathalyser in his hand.

"Yes?"

"Heyyyy, Nagisa, you accidentally hung up on me, huh?"

"I'm in the middle of something."

"That's cool, I'll just be a sec. Did you get that letter?"

"Daimon, I get a _lot_ of letters. Bills mostly."  
He seemed to pause before responding.

"Oh, right. Um… like… an invitation?"

"Yes." I didn't really feel a need to say anything more than that.

"Oh. Are you going to go?"

"…The thing about blackm—" right, police officer. "Tie— _invitations_ is that you don't really have much of a choice."

"Yeah, but like, should **_I_** go?"

"…No. No, Daimon. You're the exception. Nothing will happen to affect _you_ if _you_ don't go. You're magical."

"…So…? I can come and crash with you?"

"What part of—"

"Thanks, bye!" He hung up. He _hung up._

"I'm going to ki-…ss…. her. I'm straight. That… wasn't a guy."  
The officer stared blankly at me.  
"No, seriously. I live with a girl. –I have pictures on my phone, do you want to see? I'm straight."

"Dude, I… don't care. Just blow into this, please."

"…I'm straight." A mutter, before blowing.

I waited for the number to screw me over, but… oh, thank god. Only 0.29 percent. I was safe by a whole 0.01 percent. I lifted my head and gave him an innocent expression.

"Can I go now?"

"You really _are_ drunk."

So, I spent my morning being arrested, and calling anybody other than Kimiko to bail me out. I promised her I'd stop drinking. So, Yoshito it was. Matsuo Yoshito was a baker. I went to Kibougamine with him, and we talked on the occasion. Since he stayed in Towa City after we graduated, I often saw him around when I needed to get fresh bread. He was a friend, I suppose, but not great if you wanted… a particularly lengthy conversation. That worked out well for me, though.

"Don't ask…" A mutter, with both of us walking out of the police station. They all seemed to know him, there, so there was that. Not… because of him, though. Because of his sister, Nadeko, who murdered two people in high school. Understandable.

"Oh… okay." That was it. That was the entire conversation. My licence was suspended, only briefly since I was _technically_ under the limit when I was tested, so Yoshito had the pleasure of driving me home. The police called Haiji for me, which was just _peachy._ I had a feeling I'd have extra unnecessary work to do, now, as a result.

The car trip consisted of Yoshito trying to sing along to the radio under his breath and immediately shutting up the moment he saw me looking at him. I didn't really care, though. I was more fixated on that blackmail. Despite my indifference to the matter to the ear of Daimon, it was beginning to make my skin crawl. I was anxious about this 'reunion'. I was anxious about what would happen there… and I was anxious about seeing the others again. What could ten years out of high school mean for each of them? I only really had a vague idea. I sometimes saw mentions of Kotoko on the news or her face in movies, but that was it. I knew Masaru was doing something with sportball and Jataro was… arting, probably. Monaka, though…

I didn't really know… and the thought of finding out scared me.

How would I feel if she had a family? Happy, angry, or… jealous?


	4. Three

**_Friday._**

I found the fact that this suit that I'd spent so much money on in the past was now something that I could project my reignited loathing onto quite amusing. Kimiko didn't seem to give any response to me wearing it, other than a very, very slight raise of her brows as she saw me staring it down in the mirror.  
"Shut up." Came my immediate response to her stare, hands smoothing over the front and digging into the pockets for no real reason. She merely hummed her amusement and opened the book she'd brought into the room with her, settling down on the very side of the lounger to read it.  
"Oh, by the way… I'll probably still be up whenever you get back." She announced, not even bothering to look up at me this time.  
I gave an irritated look to my reflection and made some half-assed attempt to smooth down my cowlicks, which stood boldly either side of my head. The moment they passed through my fingers, they eagerly sprung up again. I usually wore suits, so that wasn't exactly the part of this that bothered me. What bothered me was the fact that somebody was forcing me to wear one to some stupid blackmail… reunion thing. Still, it was what I had to do at this point.

I didn't really know if it would be okay to bring any alcohol along, since Masaru was apparently going to attend. Personally, I'd given up drinking quite a while ago—well that _had_ been the case, up until recently. Since the letter had arrived, the whiskey and sake started to look better and better by the minute. Disappointing myself with a lack of impulse control, I'd ended up drinking my way through Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning. _That_ didn't exactly end well. The suspension was ridiculously small as punishment, though, and I paid the fine almost immediately. I had my licence back already, but that was probably only because the police around here were incompetent. Laws had been shifty ever since the Tragedy, anyway. People were too unstable these days.  
Giving the bottle of wine another glance, I gave a resigned sigh. What choice did I have? The invitation said to bring drinks, and… Kimiko had already troubled herself with getting it for me. I'd just keep it hidden in a bag in case of some… major wine emergency.

At this point I was simply putting off getting in the car, picking lint off the suit and refastening my bowtie. Kimiko gave something of a snort in the background, but glanced back at her book the moment I shot her a glare in our reflection.

A reunion. Blackmail. Hell. What on Earth could this person want?

…Only one way to know for sure. I turned back toward Kimiko, taking a deep breath in.  
"If I don't text you by midnight, call the police—" I paused. Like that would do any good. "Or… you know, come to the address with a weapon."

Kimiko stared up at me blankly, flipped a page and then gave a small laugh.  
"Alright, Nags."

My palms were sweating the entire drive, my stomach in knots and my head reeling with theories on who this could be. I'd seriously contemplated just going back home a few times, but resisting that urge, I managed to pull the car up on the side of the street just across from the meeting spot on the invite. No other cars were there, so either I'd gotten there first, or nobody else had bothered to show up. Nervously, I glanced at the time… and then again, just to be sure. Yeah, I was early. The others would probably show up, but just in case… waiting seemed to be a good plan.

The meeting place was a big estate; the huge remains of an old, yet somewhat familiar house. It was like something that you'd see in a horror movie, not that I watched many of those. The main difference, though, was that it was clearly not 'abandoned' or anything or the sort. There was a big water feature in the front courtyard, where a driveway wrapped around it. Old Japanese carvings littered the stone-faced walls surrounding the house and a traditional garden bordered the panelled walkways.  
I probably would have appreciated the architecture more if I wasn't so determined to hate whoever set this up.

I remained parked for a few more minutes, waiting- no, HOPING that somebody else would arrive. It must have paid off, because somebody banged on my car window in the dark. Peering cautiously across the car, I barely made out some of the pale features pressed up against the glass. It was Daimon.

He'd put on more muscle over the years, but his height was about the same as when I'd last seen him. He was short, which seemed funny on such a sporty man. His face seemed mostly clear of wrinkles, though, which both surprised and infuriated me. He was about as handsome as he would have been in his early twenties, and to me, there was something seriously messed up about that. Not that I was envious. …Seriously.

A quick flick of the lock and the passenger door was wide open, Daimon clambering his way carelessly onto the seat and pushing his suitcase between the heads of our chairs and into the back.  
"Hey!" He was grinning as he slammed the door shut and turned his head to stare at me.  
"Hi." A cautious response, and I attempted to shift my gaze away from him. Something about this meetup made me very uncomfortable, and it probably had something to do with unresolved issues.

"You're…" For a moment, it appeared like he was going to say something sentimental. "…So OLD now!" Amazing. He couldn't seem to shake his stupid grin, even as I shot him a clear look of distaste in response to his lack of discretion.  
"I'm only twenty-eight."  
"—OLD!" He interjected boldly and immediately. Sighing, I channelled my silent rage into squinting out of the car window. Maybe if I stopped responding the way that he wanted, he'd eventually catch on to my annoyance.  
"Heyyy, Nagisa, aren't you happy to see me? It's been years, after all…!"  
I sharply turned my head to him, deadpanning.  
"Not really thrilled about the circumstances. Sorry."  
"Well… yeah, but still…" He trailed that off into a mutter, scratching his knee and glancing down at the floor. What proceeded was a lingering moment of uncomfortable stillness and then…  
"So, uh, Kimiko, huh?"  
At first it didn't really strike me as odd that he'd said that, but then it sank in. I'd never _told him_ that I was living with anybody, and because of that, I felt a need to reply.  
"How did you know that?"  
He ignored me.  
"Well? Are you two… like, together?"  
"What?" I _actually_ sat up in vague surprise.  
"I don't care or anything, since it's been like, ages and ages and I wasn't really into her back then or anything—"  
"Woah, hold on," I stopped him, "I am _not_ dating her. I'm not with her at all."  
"You haven't even…?"  
"I'm not with her."  
"Oh." Masaru went silent almost instantly after that, almost as though he was thinking about something. Though, it felt a lot like he was wanting to add to the conversation again after that, but as it turned out, we both just ended up being distracted by the high-beam lights from the limousine pulling up across the road.

At first, I couldn't see who was getting out on the other side, but I had a pretty good guess on who it was. Masaru and I both leered over to one side to get a better look. The limousine drove away moments later, and there, as we could make her out through the spotlight flooding from a single streetlamp, was a woman in a long silk dress and mink coat. Her pink hair was the dead giveaway, though, rolling to her shoulders in light, stylish waves. Kotoko.

"Is that Kotoko?" Masaru asked, gaping in about the same amount of astonishment as me. She looked… really good. I knew that much already from seeing her on the television, but seeing it in person was simply surreal.  
She stood out all alone in front of the gates, purse clutched tightly in one hand and a phone in the other. She seemed thoroughly invested in it.  
"I… think it is." I finally replied. More hush, the both of us just watching her in amazement.  
"She… looks great!" Yeah, Masaru. We established that. I simply nodded, distracted for only a moment longer as another car pulled up. This one was also nice—just not on limousine level. It had a driver, though. Somebody got out of it and Kotoko instantly walked over to hug them. It took me a moment but going by the light hair… no way.

"No way." Masaru gaped.  
"That's… is that Jataro?" I murmured. He looked so… _formal_ in an artsy kind of way. But what struck me the most was that his suit perfectly fit him for once. He was holding a few plastic bags full of what I could only assume were drinks and stood close to Kotoko to pursue some sort of conversation with her. I wondered what they were talking about, but it was easy to figure out once they both started to look around in search of something. Kotoko pointed over at my car, suddenly, and both Masaru and I jumped to duck down and hide. There wasn't really any reason to do it, either—we both simply seemed to panic. When we lifted our heads back up, Jataro and Kotoko were headed toward the front of the house.

I hesitated. There was only really one more person left… and I had no idea if she was even going to show up or not. Great, and I suddenly felt sick again. Masaru seemed to catch on pretty easily to my tense nature, too.

"She's probably not going to turn up, Nagisa. I heard she was out of the country or something—and let's face it, with Monaka, a crime like this isn't really something she'd give a shit about." He was trying to be encouraging, but mostly I was distracted by the fact that he seemed to have a decent point. He moved to leave the car, pushing his door open.  
As he walked across the street I experienced a split-second panic and grabbed the wine from the bag, easily unscrewing the top from it without so much as a glance and taking a big chug. The aftertaste gave me a moment of slight unpleasantness, but with that, I shoved it back into the bag and gathered everything together to take it out of the car with me.

Jataro and Kotoko were already inside, and let us in the moment they spotted us walking up the driveway. Kotoko began pulling us all into hugs, surprisingly chipper in regards to our situation.

"It's so weird! It's been such a long time!" She exclaimed, taking a moment to give Masaru a once-over before she actually hugged him. Jataro gave me a half-smile and went in to hug me without any hesitation.  
"Uh… ten years, huh?" I pointed out, whilst trying to survive the gesture with a firm pat on his back. All of these years and I still had an issue with physical contact. Any improvement just went down the drain upon meeting Jataro again.

"Yeah, I was just saying to Nagisa that we've all gotten so old!" Masaru laughed into his words. Kotoko simply smiled and laughed alongside him, but something told me that she was partially irritated by the comment.

"Where did you all come in from?" I asked, shifting the conversation _and_ my bag of things. I placed it down on a table by the door, and the wine bottle ended up sticking out of the top. Masaru caught a glance of it, but turned the other way immediately, as if pretending he didn't see it.

"Yokohama." Jataro replied first, "I own a gallery there, but I kinda fly overseas a lot for art events and thingies... S'pretty cool."  
"Did you get a plane over?" I asked, to which Jataro nodded. Kotoko interjected.  
" ** _I_** actually just flew in from L.A. I have acting work over there. I'm essentially pretty famous, like, _everywhere."  
_ "Yeah! I see you on television heaps!" Daimon pointed out, "I got the train from Tokyo. Big game on Wednesday… it was on television as well! Ajinomoto Stadium… you know…?"  
"Ooh, what about you, Naggy-kun?" Inquired Kotoko, probably using the nickname in some attempt to seem cute. I squinted in response to it.  
"I live in Towa…" A pause, "I work for Towa Group. …Um… under Haiji Towa."  
Kotoko screwed up her face.  
"Um, GROSS. Lolicon fuckboy alert!"  
I didn't reply. I felt the same way about him, but it wasn't like I had any other options.  
"—Ooh! Okay, new question! LOVE LIFE! Who's hitched?" Kotoko chimed. There was a silence, and then she, herself, held out her hand to show a ring.  
"I'm engaged. American guy." She smiled. Jataro patted her hand, awkwardly, like he didn't really know how to respond but figured that touching her in some way close to the ring would be decent enough of a congratulatory gesture.  
"Congratulations." I said.

"Oh, Nagisa's living with Kimiko!" Masaru said.  
Everybody turned toward me in surprise and I quickly shook my head. Way to make me feel victimised, Daimon.  
"We're not dating."  
"Oh." Jataro and Kotoko said simultaneously.  
"Well, anybody else found someone?" Kotoko asked. There was a long silence, and then…  
 _"I have._ " A higher voice, belonging to a woman halfway through the door in a nice green dress. She looked… ugh, how should I put it? _Absolutely beautiful._  
Her green hair was just past her shoulders, a diamond-crested headband that could've been a tiara on the top of her head. We all just took a moment to watch her as she entered the room.

"Monaka." We all seemed to speak in unison. She neatly closed the door behind her and took in the expressions on all our faces. Suddenly, she seemed upset. Guilty.

"Hi." She stood there, unmoving after that. I doubt any of us even really _knew_ what to say.  
 _"...I'm_ with someone." She repeated, seemingly a little unsure of her right to speak. "Um... do you remember Phillip? The SHSL Prince we went to school with?"

"I was trying to forget." I muttered, while Kotoko screwed up her face, almost as much as she had when I'd mentioned Haiji.

"We're married now." Monaka gave a nod, as if to affirm her words.

…And Kotoko **_lost it._**

She immediately threw her expensive purse down on the floor, huffing angrily.

"Oh, would _you fuck off?!_ I'm a millionaire- a WORLD FAMOUS actress, and you would think that I could sit back and be pretty damn satisfied with my awesomeness- clearly the most successful of all of us... and of course reunion time rolls around and MONAKA walks in with her pretentious fucking diamond headband and her... stupid pretty face and is all like 'OH, BY THE WAY, I'M A QUEEN L-M-A-O!' Yeah, like it's not even a big deal, like just- fuck off! **_Fuck off!_** I worked HARD to get where I am! **_IF ONLY you knew that I made 32 million yen since June_**!"

We all met that with stunned silence, before she grabbed the wine half-out of the plastic bag I'd brought and downed a bunch of it at once. Jataro, Monaka and I glanced over at Masaru to watch his reaction, but he simply looked at the ground.  
"You're gonna smell like shit for the rest of the night." A mutter. That was all. Kotoko simply ignored him, took another sip, and then shoved the bottle into Jataro's hands.

"Ooh… oh… so _this_ is why we were told to bring drinks…" Jataro figured, nodding in understanding. …And then another moment passed and he mumbled a small 'what the hell?' and took a very small sip. Party hard, Kemuri.

Monaka and I shared looks, and then quickly joined Masaru in staring at the marble floor with great concentration.  
"Uh…" Jataro began again, "So, who is this mystery blackmailer, anyway?"  
"Monaka." Masaru and Kotoko chimed in unison. Monaka first seemed affronted, and then just… _remorseful._  
"No…I didn't do this. I was in the picture, too." She was looking more and more uncomfortable by the second.  
"Well, maybe it's a trick! The Monaka _we_ know wouldn't have to answer to blackmail!" Masaru clearly hadn't changed much in personality since we were kids… but it was oddly endearing, and probably a result of all that intense sportballing and whatever else.

"It wasn't me!" Monaka insisted, looking genuinely frustrated. "Maybe I could afford it back then… but I have a reputation to uphold, now."  
"Not much of one if you're married to Phillip, that fuck is an inorganic." Kotoko commented, to which I squinted. Did she just say that, or was I just getting really dizzy suddenly?  
"In…organic?" I started, "Did you mean to call him an… _ignoramus?_ "  
Monaka just frowned at her again. Talk about a rough start.

"What are we WAITING for anyway? I have to be back in America by tomorrow for an important shoot—"  
"WOWZA! Kotoko-chan is like… is LIKE… a BIG BADASS ACTRESS, NOW! L-L-LOOOOOOOK OUT!"

I could tell that we _all_ froze at that. Like we'd been slapped. All of us.

I whirled around, feeling less and less in control of my body by the second.  
…There she stood.  
"Junko… onee-san?" Monaka spoke first. I could hear the trembling in her voice. My legs felt weak.

I honestly could tell you much about what happened after that, because the last memory I had of that night was Junko _pulling out a firearm_ and _shooting down the chandelier. Yeah…_ something about that still doesn't make sense to me.


End file.
